finding ethnic food served with love

The Halal Subway

Andrea’s View: Poccadio Moroccan Grill is a virtual smorgasbord of Moroccan delights nestled between The Magic Bus and Thr3e Wise Men Brewery on Broadripple Avenue. A place where drunks and stoners alike can feast on high quality, healthy, if not naturally salty, “fast food”. Yes, Thr3e Wise Men does sell food, but it’s not interesting food. I think the Magic Bus only serves Funyuns.

Dave and I, four friends, and a toddler (no this is not a punch line) walked into Poccadio one evening after partaking in a few drinks at Thr3e Wise Men. When the six of us get together, multiple conversations take place at the same time and we tend to get really loud to make sure that our own funny story is heard above the other funny stories. I’m not sure what the only employee in the restaurant was thinking when we walked in, but he knew how to control the situation. Give us three giant plates of food on the house. Eating delicious food turned our raucous stories into shouts of, “OMG did you try that, this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten, you must try that, etc” After devouring the three plates of free samples, we all got in line to order dinner. Now the real genius of the only employee really shines through. The three plates were just enough to pacify us as we each painstakingly made our own sandwiches ala Subway. Only in this “Subway” , the only employee is manning the meat section, the veggie and condiment sections, and running the cash register. This makes for a very slow and inefficient process. But that really doesn’t matter because you can’t get a shawarma sandwich at Subway. You can’t get grilled zucchini, artichoke hearts, hummus, eggplant, raisins, capers, and a dozen other exotic sandwich toppings at Subway. I ordered at shawarma (a gryo type of shaved meat) on pita with charmoula (cilantro pesto), roasted red pepper, grilled zucchini, chickpeas, and feta cheese. Instead of a bag of chips, which they don’t serve, I opted for bakoula, a spinach and olive oil side dish. Amazing. The perfect meal after imbibing on too much Indiana craft beer. Or too much Indiana grown marijuana if that’s your thing. No judgement here.

Marrakesh Poccadio

The inside

The front counter

Shawarma and Spinach

The inside

The view

Dave’s View: When you enter Poccadio Moroccan Grill and Gourmet Sandwiches in Broad Ripple, the first thing that will enter your mind will be, “Am I in a Subway restaurant?” No, you’re not, because the food here is a thousand times better than Subway. Not only on a spiritual level, but also on a taste level. The flavors, the smells, and the kindness of this restaurant will make you come back for more. Afraid of Moroccan or Halal food? Come to this restaurant and your fears will disappear. The restaurant is set up like a Subway restaurant where you stand in line and pick a sandwich with your favorite toppings or you can go with one of their own preconceived sandwiches, which is what I did.

I had the Marrakesh Poccadio. It’s grilled kafta with hummus, lettuce, tomatoes and onions. The flavors, like cumin and coriander, come out of this sandwich and perfectly balance out the hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion. If you never had kafta, it’s basically a hamburger with more flavor and not as firm. I also added Harrissa on top of my sandwich. Now, if you don’t like “heat”, don’t try this sauce. How hot is the Harissa? Let’s say, you had some major sinus congestion. In ten seconds after eating the Harissa, your sinus cavities would completely be cleared. That’s how hot the Harissa is here. If your friend gets hit by a large blunt object, falls to the floor, just grab some Harissa, place a dab in the mouth and your friend will wake up quickly. That’s how hot the Harissa is here. Now, I could keep going on about how hot the Harissa sauce is here, but I think you get the point.

The inside of the restaurant is nicely decorated with deep red paint and marble countertop tables. It also has some nice Middle Eastern decor on the walls, mosaic tiles at the front counter, followed by some attractive light fixtures. The only drawback of the restaurant is the service. I’m not talking about the attitude of our server. In fact, he was extraordinarily kind. He even gave us samples of virtually everything to taste. It was the fact that he had to do everything. Service the food, explain the food, be kind, and then ring it up. The place needs to get two to three people behind the counter in order to keep up with the crowds. After tasting our sample plate, it took us another 30 minutes to get our sandwiches.

Overall, you should go here, shove food in and you will like it…even though it may take 30 minutes.